"federal judges were excusing Backpage from all liability,” said Mazzio. “Even alleged criminal activity is shielded by an outdated internet freedom law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

"Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labor"

What Is Human Trafficking?
Tom Lowery, Contributor 03/26/2017

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. It’s the exploitation of people and involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.

Contrary to popular misconception, Human Trafficking exists in every country, including the United States. If you think it’s always about foreigners and poor people then it’s imperative for you acquaint yourself with the facts.

Victims can be any age, race, gender or nationality. They can also come from any socioeconomic group. They’re not dirty or sex mad or stupid. They’re victims of a wide network of underground criminals....

It’s estimated that Human Trafficking generates many billions of dollars in profits per year; second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime.

Award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio (whom I’ve previously written about in my article We Are All Jane Doe), is the producer and director of the film I Am Jane Doe. This documentary followed the heart breaking journey of several middle-school daughters, victims of Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com....

“I was also struck by the fact that federal judges were excusing Backpage from all liability,” said Mazzio. “Even alleged criminal activity is shielded by an outdated internet freedom law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, in a particularly stunning decision, told these Jane Doe children that even if Backpage participated in the federal crime of sex trafficking, the case had to be dismissed. It simply did not make any sense to me that it was legal to host ads for the sale of children here in the United States.” ....

Other types of crimes related to Human Trafficking include Forced Labor and Slave Labor. The International Labor Organization estimates are frightening:

Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labor – 11.4 million women and girls and 9.5 million men and boys.
Almost 19 million victims are exploited by private individuals or enterprises and over 2 million by the state or rebel groups.
Of those exploited by individuals or enterprises, 4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation.
Forced labor in the private economy generates US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year.
Domestic work, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and entertainment are among the sectors most concerned.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-is-human-trafficking_us_58d85f7ee4b0c0980ac0e789

I AM JANE DOE - TRAILER
Mary Mazzio
I AM JANE DOE chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters, victims of sex trafficking on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds section that for years was part of the iconic Village Voice.
Narrated by Academy Award-nominee Jessica Chastain, directed by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, and produced by Mazzio and Academy-Award nominee, Alec Sokolow, the film is a gut-wrenching human story and fresh look at a social and legal issue that affects every community in America. For more, please visit IamJaneDoeFilm.comhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt8jpxA_AY0

Europe is now the global hub of websites hosting child pornography, after a 19 percent jump in content since last year, a new report has found.

The report, conducted by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), found that Europe hosted the greatest number of websites with graphic images and videos of children. The Netherlands has become the country with the most online sexual imagery of children in Europe. (For the purpose of the report, Europe includes Russia and Turkey.)

The IWF is a non-profit, responsible for finding and removing graphic sexual content from the internet.

Until recently, most child sexual abuse images were found in the United States (57 percent), but this has now shifted to Europe, which hosts 60 percent of all material says the report.

Child abuse content has fallen in the United States partly because of work undertaken by the U.S. industry to tackle the problem. Susie Hargreaves, director of the IWF, told the BBC criminals are forced to search harder for host websites where they can upload child pornography. Just 37 percent of abusive images now come from the United States.

Child trafficking in UK hits record high, figures show
Number of child victims referred rise by 30 per cent in a year, with biggest surge among British children and youngsters from countries affected by conflict May Bulman April 3, 2017

Child trafficking referrals in the UK have hit a record high after rising by 30 per cent in a year, statistics have revealed.

The number of children referred to the UK Government’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which identifies victims of human trafficking, increased to 1,278 in 2016, the highest figure on record, according to the latest figures from the National Crime Agency.

More than a third of all potential victims of trafficking were children aged 18 and under, with a majority of children drawn into exploitative labour, including forced criminality, such as cannabis cultivation. Overall, the NRM identified 3,805 potential victims of trafficking in 2016, a 17 per cent increase on 2015.....

All reported forms of exploitation affecting children – domestic servitude, labour exploitation and sexual exploitation – increased by considerable percentages, indicating a worrying diffusion of the types of abuses suffered by children.